Industrial labor productivities and tariffs in South Africa. Identification based on multilateral liberalization reform

Torfinn Harding and Jorn Rattso

Discussion Papers from Statistics Norway, Research Department

Abstract: The analysis of the effect of tariffs for labor productivity faces the challenge of tariff policy endogeneity. Tariff policy is designed to promote economic development and the industrial sector tariff structure may reflect characteristics of the industries protected. We seek to identify the effect of tariffs by taking advantage of multilateral tariff liberalization using reductions in industrial sector tariffs in other world regions as instruments for sectoral tariff reductions in South Africa. The data cover 28 manufacturing sectors over the period 1988-2003. We find that tariff reductions have stimulated labor productivity when instrumented by multilateral tariffs. The OLS estimates show downward bias and supports the understanding that the government has given priority to tariff reductions in sectors with slow productivity growth.

Keywords: Trade policy; policy evaluation; barriers to growth; technology adoption; South Africa; labor productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F43 O11 O33 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Working Paper: Industrial labor productivities and tariffs in South Africa: Identification based on multilateral liberalization reform (2009)
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